Beeman

I am trying to decide between CMU and Penn State for the Social area studying minority health and stigma. I keep going back and forth but want to make a decision soon. The CMU degree would be in social and health psychology. The Penn state degree is a dual title degree in social and WGSS. I’d love any advice or thoughts!

Hi y’all! I thought a thread announcing decisions or asking for help with decisions might be helpful. I especially need help deciding between two schools and figured others may need help.

Sending y'all good vibes this Friday!

I know we’ve talked about ranking here, but how much does minor differences in rank matter. Like if you were accepted to a rank 16 and a rank 25 - is that substantial enough that the rank 16 should be your decision? (If you can’t tell I’m struggling)

I feel the same way! I am awful at making decisions. I also didn't want to apply to some highly ranked schools because I deemed it "paying money to be rejected," and also as a minority student, I wanted to go somewhere that I felt comfortable (at least somewhat). Something important that one of my advisors told me was that while ranking is important, past a certain point its more arbitrary and the more important part is fit and who your mentor will be. You want to be with a mentor that will establish you in the field doing the research you want to do. Ultimately, your current mentor may have opinions, but you're the one that's going to have to live it! Do what's best for you.

One of those! I decided to try and not apply to too many "super competitive" (in quotes because I think we all have different metrics) schools, which may seem counterintuitive to some. I applied to 6 schools in the top 20 and for my other 9 I tried to vary throughout the rankings (granted rankings change and are often not reflective of the current things happening in a department). I've been lucky to get contacted by a majority regardless! I feel very privileged in this process compared to the Fall 2020 admission cycle when it seemed like everything was going wrong

Only three schools left that I haven’t heard from regarding interviews, acceptances, or rejections. Starting to finally feel like I can relax, phew?

If it isn't fake it may be similar to some situations I had (at other universities). The committee wanted to nominate me for fellowships that required my admission decision be made before other applicants.

How’s everyone holding up?

Florida State has started planning visitation weekend. I’d guess if you’ve not been accepted by now you’re at best on the waitlist.

@catherine666I understand. I haven’t received any news from UCSB despite them having sent out a wave of rejections. I’d consider no news good news in all of this (for now)

Heyyyyy, same here, gotta love sitting in the rejection pool

Via Email it looks like!

Bracing for a UT Austin rejection ?

In the Fall 2020 cycle I had 14 rejections and got 5 back to back I think. So if it makes you feel better you're hanging with the rejection champion competition.

I applied places two years ago and got rejected from every single program except my current Master's program. I really felt like it was the end of the world, but now I have multiple acceptances and interviews, so a lot can change in a short period of time! I will keep sending you the best vibes ❤️

The quietness makes me nervous, but I'm sure we will get a lot of info all at once :')

Im super curious which schools you applied to if you don’t mind sharing! I applied to 14 and that was enough to get people shocked by the number.

I have a little spreadsheet with what schools I applied to and whether they did interviews or plain acceptances. Interviews seem a little more rare in the field than my other field I applied to (Social Psychology). UT Austin and Columbia both don't do interviews historically. Looking through the results panel I estimated that Columbia responses usually come as Acceptances in early February (occasionally mid February, but I have ignored 2020 for a lot of my metrics because departments were struggling) and UTA usually sends out Acceptances in early February or occasionally late January.

I am always down to talk if we want to get more active. My family, friends, and MA cohort are probably tired of listening to me scream about this process

Hello! I am an undergraduate, graduating in May 2020. I am currently looking into PhD programs and just received my GRE scores. I received a V160, Q153, and AW4.0. I was very surprised by my AW score because I had tested much higher on practice tests that had been graded, but overall I suppose it is reasonable. I was very nervous that day, trying not to panic, and was not very familiar with the topic presented. Still, I felt a little disheartened when I read the score. I didn't have my heart set on Ivy's so I am not too concerned about that, but I am concerned about getting into a R1 institution with this lower score. Is it worth trying to retake next month in hopes of it getting back before deadlines? Part of me feels that I should retake, but mostly I am in a place where standardized testing makes me so miserable that I should just go with what I have and hopefully any program worth going to will understand.